will mexican red leg or blue leg hermits mess with corals?

[Killeriguana]

As of now, i have 4 mexican red leg crabs in my 55 with picasso trigger, tomato clowns, and green spotted puffer. the only coral i have at the moment, is a little bit of xenia. i noticed one of the red legs walking right through the center of the xenia and that the xenia is not doing so great. could the crab be causing the problem? and i was thinking of adding about 75 blue legs if i knew they would not mess with future corals.
Thank you

[brascal1]

I haven't had hermits mess with the corals by eating them but they certainly could be doing that. I have had them knock them over, or bother them by repeatedly spending time competing for same spot. Worse is most of mine seemed to be snail killers - I had plenty of empty shells but they prefered to make a snack out of a snail in order to earn their new home.

[Chris27]

I would be more worried about the Picasso eating the snails and hermits, then the hermit bothering the xenia. If your xenia isn't bouncing back after a few min. I would think something else is to blame, my hermits walk through, on and over my corals, they shrink up for a min. and then go back to being happy once the hermit is gone.

[Killeriguana]

well my trigger has almost killed all of my snails that were on the live rock and really hasnt seemed to mess with the hermits to much. he will pick at them but they will just hide in there shell. and the reason for the xenia not doing so well is probly because my long tentacle anemone died and blew up everywhere so i did like a 60% water change and a 25% the next day. Now the xenia seems to be half way recovering but i was wondering if the hermits could prevent it which it looks like they will not mess with it. So would 75 blue legs be too much to add? or i can get a 100 of them on ebay shipped for $50

[TwistedEnvy]

Sometimes xenia acts up. I had blue legs but they were punks and would gang up on my snails. I have only red legs and snails now and everything is great. I don't think either of the crabs could be the problem and agree that I would be more worried about the trigger.

[TwistedEnvy]

That is a lot of crabs, you may want to look into different types of crabs as well as they all eat different things

[Killeriguana]

but arent the blue legs supposed to eat hair algae? or should i get a few very large hermit crabs?

[lordofthereef]

Crabs are hit or miss. For this reason just about the only crabs I keep anymore are emerald crabs... even those have been reported problematic by fellow RCers.

[Jason S]

The problem that I have seen with Hermits is that they are sometimes misidentified in the trade, and since they are wild caught, we are not really sure what they became accustomed to eating in the wild. It is possible that there are some that could eat coral, but I have never had one that did. It is very likely that they kill snails, but coral would be rare IME. Do you really need 75 hermits in a 55 gallon? I have always gotten away with half or less of the "recommended" number of crabs in my tanks. Keeping a close watch on your nutrients and flow around and behind rockwork has always been more beneficial to me than overloading with crabs. I only have about 40 or so in my 100 Gallon reef, and have zero algae problems. Many years ago, when I did add more, I would find that they would die off. I like to add them slowly until I get a good balance, and stick with the number that show the results that I am looking for.

+1 on the trigger or even the puffer, though. I think they are far more likely culprits. That or it could be your chemistry, lighting, etc. What are the other specs of your tank? Nitrates, SG, Amm, Trites, lighting, age of tank, pH, etc...

[Killeriguana]

maybe but the emerald crabs do not have a shell so would just be a feeding for the trigger and puffer

[TwistedEnvy]

You can try Thin Strpe Hermits. They are not considered reef safe because they can get to be the size of a baseball (so I have heard), but may be a good addition with your trigger in there and no snails.

[Jason S]

Originally Posted by lordofthereef

Crabs are hit or miss. For this reason just about the only crabs I keep anymore are emerald crabs... even those have been reported problematic by fellow RCers.

+1 Indeed. I have an Emerald crab right now that munches my coraline. It is not much, so I have not tried to get him out. Besides, he is beautiful, huge, and does not hide much, so I like him in there.

[Killeriguana]

ammonia- 0
Nitrates- 0 (i have never seen them at 0 before)
nitrites- 0
Phosphate- .5 (it was like very light grey but looked closest to .5)
ph- 8.2
salinity- 1.024
temp- 80

It has 4 coralife 24 inch 65 watt each pc's
cascade canister filter (100 gal rating)
just got a tunze 9010 protien skimmer yesterday. (has collected about 75 ml since)
I set the tank up a little over 6 months ago
hoping the new skimmer will eliminate most of the problems
and the paremeters were tested about 10 minutes ago

[Bru]

I have never had a issue with any of my hermits. However they tend to get into scuffles with eachother. There are two that HATE eachother i mean it. When they run into eachother they grab eachothers shells and slam into eachother. Its kinda funny they do that for a min or two then go on there way. They do not do it to any other hermits. As far as the corals they walk over some of the Zoe's do not eat them or anything though.

[K.Bodno]

How old is your tank? It could not be the hermits, it could just be the xenia. As tanks mature, xenia seems to die off. They seem to do better in newer aquariums